Greener consumption: the birds and the bees (and the bats) edition

Didn’t know it was National Pollinator Week? That’s OK: we’ve got you covered with ideas and products suggestions for keeping bees, bird, butterflies and bats protected, happy, and pollinating.

What’s that buzzing sound?: Whole Foods Market is celebrating the most well-known pollinator, the bee, with its “Share the Buzz” campaign. Learn more about bees, share the information you find through social networks, and see what brands that Whole Foods sells are helping to fund bee populations.

Create a pollinator garden: Want to make sure you’re planting for pollinators? The Pollinator Partneship’s Bee Smart Pollinator Gardener app (for iPhone and Android) helps you pick the right plants for your location.

Bees for beauty: As we noted on Tuesday, Burt’s Bees is also celebrating its namesake pollinator (or, as they like to call them, “magical fuzzy little flower-hopping life-bringers”) with its “Wild for Bees” video series featuring Isabella Rosselini of SEDUCE ME and GREEN PORNO fame.

British bees for beauty: UK magazine Psychologies shares a list of beauty products that contain honey, beeswax, and other ingredients dependent on bees.

Bring in the butterflies: Of course, bees aren’t the only pollinators: butterflies are another species that contributes to the lifecycle of plants. Want to bring beautiful monarch butterflies into your garden? Plant milkweed, which monarch caterpillars love!

Keep the hummingbirds happy!: Hummingbirds are yet another pollinator that we often overlook, so a feeder in the garden not only adds a colorful accent, but attracts these tiny birds to your plants.

Give a home to a bat: Bats? Flying rats, right – who wants those around? But, yep, they also provide pollination services, so a well-place bat house can support their efforts to keep the garden growing. Bat Conservation International has all of the deets on installing a house, and a list of sources for purchasing them.

Got your own favorite pollinator, or a product that supports them? Let us know about it in the comments.